


My Problem with MPREG

by Jalila



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Star Trek, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Let's Talk About Stuff, M/M, Meta, Mpreg, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1297108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jalila/pseuds/Jalila
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A snooty, judgmental liberal tilts her head at one of Slashfic's ever-expanding tropes. Don't say you weren't warned.</p><p>Also, please read and heed the warnings at the beginning of the piece.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Problem with MPREG

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! My very first post to AO3! And it's not actual fanfic...oh. *sad face*
> 
> WARNINGS: Frank, but not explicit, discussions of abortion, sexual assault, and pregnancy (wanted or otherwise). Brief mentions of forced abortion and forced pregnancy. Also sex. Of the gay variety. If this is a problem for you...wait, why...? How did you even get here?
> 
> Also, I mention in passing that in today's world, 'in vitro fertilization is a fairly easy option.' I realize that for anyone who has personally struggled or known someone else to struggle with fertility problems, you might find this statement to be untrue or insulting. I do not intend it to be so, but mean that compared to eras of human development where fertility issues were treated with teas of dubious toxicity and other pseudo-medical, semi-magical procedures, yes, getting pregnant in the 21st century is considerably safer and easier than it was for our ancestors. 
> 
> SPOILERS FOR: Doctor Who (2005), Season 3. No actual knowledge or interest in the series is necessary, as just enough context is given to understand what I'm on about. It's just an anecdote about a Who-verse MPREG story. Though true Whovians will probably hate my simplification of the 3.11 to 3.13 story arc. If you're a fan and somehow have avoiding seeing those episodes so far...skip it, I guess? 
> 
> Un-beta'ed. All mistakes are my own. That said, please let me know if you find any. Vigorous debate and discussion welcome.

   So, fanfic connoisseurs, you are likely familiar with a subcategory of slash fic known as MPREG, or male pregnancy. It involves stories in which male character A has sex with male character B, and with a side of hand-wavy science, the receiving partner finds himself up the duff. Theoretically, MPREG might also occur among male-female couples in Alpha/Beta/Omega settings, where the man is a childbearing Omega and the woman is an Alpha, but this situation does not seem to arise very frequently in fanfic. Then again, I have issues with A/B/O verses too, so maybe that's just my uninformed prejudice talking. For more about A/B/O verses, read [norabombay](http://archiveofourown.org/users/norabombay/pseuds/norabombay)'s hilarious yet thorough rendering of the topic here: [Alphas, Betas, Omegas: A Primer](http://archiveofourown.org/works/403644/chapters/665489)\--I was able to enjoy it despite being turned off by what I see as a pretty paternalistic genre.

   My issue with MPREG actually has very little to do with pregnant men--though I admit that the scientist in me wants a better explanation than is usually provided in most stories (I shan't even begin to address the phenomenon known as 'assbabies.' It's just not...hygienic. Also, oww.). We live in an era of _in vitro_ fertilization as a fairly easy option for those who want and can afford it, and should I make it to 90, it will not surprise me if we are eventually able to offer this option to men as well (Though frankly, a synthetic womb in a lab sounds like a better deal to me--the number of hormones involved in stretching cartilage and generally making room for a baby in a female body is already a bit squicky. Oh, ye men desiring to birth thine own offspring, why wouldst thou desire to squish thy organs to that extent?!). My problem has to do with the societies that seem to develop within stories where MPREG is possible. From my admittedly limited experience, it would appear that MPREG is usually either A) very rare and thus freakish and shameful to society at large, or B) common enough, but childbearing men are somehow second or third class citizens, to be fetishized as a sexual commodity or traded about as breeding stock. Now, I get that some people enjoy reading about these heavily unbalanced societies, though they all start to blend together for me.

   But then we arrive at the issue of unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. In the real world, we have options for women who don't want to be pregnant: contraception, Plan B-type medications, and if all else fails, abortion. I personally believe that all of these options should be universally available, though in reality, they are often harder to access the younger and/or poorer a person is.

   In scenario A, where our pregnant male protagonist is an anomaly, the option of abortion is almost inevitably brought up. In his distress at possibly being rejected by a hostile society or by an unsupportive partner, our hero has to decide whether or not to hide away until gestation is complete, or to terminate. Sometimes, our hero is informed that an abortion itself would likely kill him. To my knowledge, that is not usually the case in the real world (keeping in mind the risks involved in any serious medical procedure), but I'm willing to let that go in a fictional reality where somehow MPREG has been made possible but remains a pretty nasty shock. Sometimes, our hero firmly believes that abortion is wrong and that he can't possibly terminate his pregnancy, even at the risk of, oh I don't know, mobs of enraged citizens baying for the blood of the Antichrist fetus and its unnatural male carrier. And then, of course, there's the version where our protagonist has decided that, for whatever reason, he simply can't do it: whether his own health is threatened by remaining pregnant; or he's afraid of losing his family, friends or romantic interest; or the environment in which he finds himself is inappropriate for bearing and raising a child (say, a battlefield or an abusive home); or he was raped, tricked, or otherwise coerced into having sex; or he is simply unwilling or unable to be a parent. You know, pretty real-world reasons for deciding not to have a baby.

   Here's generally where the second near-inevitability shows up: our protagonist does not have an abortion. Now, he may not carry that fetus to term, but in the vast majority of MPREG stories that I have read, the hero is convinced to soldier on. Usually this involves one or more of the protagonist's friends, or sometimes the protagonist's love interest, telling our hero that no matter how dire his situation may seem, he should accept this pregnancy as a gift. Society reviles you? No problem, we'll hide and/or defend you from those evil bigots. Your partner thinks you're a freak? Usually, he doesn't, and this leads to lots of hot, post-miscommunication, make-up sex, but in the event that our hero's baby-daddy is an ass, the hero's love interest steps up and in a beautiful 'I-will-love-you-and-this baby-unconditionally-until-the-end-of-time' speech, all is again made well. Having the baby could kill you? You were raped? You don't think you can be a good parent? Without exception, the hero's friends will tell him that _none of this matters_ , they will help him through this dangerous/painful/fucked up time, and it will all turn out for the best. In some of the more emotionally realistic stories, the hero's doubts and fears throughout his pregnancy are a major plot point and provide an excellent source of conflict and angst. Occasionally, very, very occasionally, a friend will tell our hero that he has 'other options,' code for abortion or sometimes adoption. But again, the point of these stories is that some male character that we like is preggers, and that baby is going to be had, one way or another.

   In scenario B, where no one, except possibly our hero, is terribly shocked by men having babies, many of the above developments may also occur. Sometimes, despite male pregnancy being no surprise, our hero may still face abuse and discrimination from the society in which he finds himself. He may not wish to be pregnant for the very same reasons as our hero in scenario A, but he may face the additional societal pressure of 'this is normal, why wouldn't you want to be pregnant?' Oftentimes, this scenario is coupled with A/B/O verse or D/s verse, and our protagonist is on the 'weaker' or subservient side of the equation. This may inherently limit the choices he is allowed to make about his own body, and it will certainly impact access to contraception and abortion, although sometimes for the better. After all, if one lives in a society where men can and do become pregnant, it is likely that products and services related both to male pregnancy and pregnancy termination have been developed alongside those for female pregnancy, at least as is appropriate for the time period. In A/B/O verses in particular, consent is a particularly thorny concept, and whether or not our hero feels that his pregnancy was the result of rape may not align with societal definitions of sexual assault, exploitation or coercion.

   In dark AUs, where our protagonist may be kept as a slave or is trapped in an abusive relationship, his choice to either be pregnant or not may be vastly limited or completely null. These are the stories were his partner or his master, or what-have-you, may force him to remain pregnant or force him to abort, and frankly, as dark as I am in my tastes and personality, there's kind of a limit to the number of tropes I can handle at one time. So, other than to mention that MPREG exists in these contexts as well, I am going to carry on.

   Ultimately, what bothers me about MPREG is this: the choices that exist for women in the real world and women in fiction don't seem to apply to their pregnant male counterparts in fan fiction. Now, I am sure that there are many, many stories both within and outside of fanfic that deal with women being convinced to keep their pregnancies despite whatever reasons they may have for abortion instead. But I think we have reached a point where there are nearly as many stories where women are allowed to make informed decisions about their bodies, whether they choose abortion or not. Presumably men able to become pregnant should have that choice, too. So where are their stories?

   I come from a pretty liberal, pro-choice background (can you tell?), and I'm of the belief that no one gets up in the morning and says, "Yeah, I think I'll have an abortion today. That sounds like fun." In other words, no one _wants_ to have an abortion. But there are times when having a baby simply is not safe, reasonable or possible, and when such a time comes, we need safe, reliable options available to the people who find themselves in such untenable situations. Even people who fall into the anti-abortion camp often make allowances for the victims of rape and incest, and yet, in fan fiction, I have come across a disturbing number of MPREG stories where our heroes do not seem to deserve the same consideration. Possibly, the writers of such fic fall into the hard-and-fast 'no abortion in any situation' camp, be it for religious or moral reasons. But then I have to wrap my mind around what such people are doing in the slashy, porny world of fan fiction in the first place. Maybe it's just another of my ignorant assumptions.

   The fic that prompted this particular tirade was set in Doctor Who-verse. I identify as a reluctant Whovian, because, dammit, I want to strangle the writers of the show often as much as I want to fall down at their altar and worship them. Followers of the rejuvenated Doctor Who series will know the three-episode arc in Season 3 (3.11 _Utopia_ through 3.13 _Last of the Time Lords_ ), wherein the Doctor's arch nemesis, the Master, resurfaces in the guise of politically-savvy Harold Saxon, bent once again on world destruction. The Doctor and the Master are the last of their race, the fabled Time Lords, and good Lord, is there lots of UST between them. Get this: once firm childhood friends on their home planet of Gallifrey, the Master was driven mad during his coming-of-age ceremony (which involves looking into the Untempered Schism, a sort of portal onto the whole of space and time) while the Doctor wisely ran the hell away. And thus, for the last 900-plus years, they've chased each other across the universe, while the Master wreaks havoc and the Doctor tries to prevent him from blowing up too many planets. It's a match made in heaven.

   At the end of Season 3 however, it's the Master who's got the Doctor at his mercy. Having lied, hypnotized and murdered his way to the position of British Prime Minister, he captures the Doctor and his friends, holds them in a space ship orbiting Earth, and tortures them as he implements the destruction of the Doctor's pet planet. Excellent set-up for all sorts of angsty fic, right?

   The fic in question is set after the resolution of this story arc, in which the Doctor and his friends save the day and the Master is killed. In the story, the Doctor approaches his old friend Jack Harkness with the news that he is pregnant, due to his alien biology and rape at the hands of the Master. When the Doctor expresses a very clear and firm desire to terminate his pregnancy, the first words out of Jack's mouth are, essentially, "No, you don't want an abortion. That's just your crazy pregnancy hormones talking." And this is treated as the correct, moral response to a rape victim in distress. The story then spends twelve more chapters and many thousands of words justifying why a person who has suffered a year's worth of intense trauma should be pressured into having the baby of an mass murdering rapist. I'll be honest, I could not read until the end. So maybe it got better? Somehow I sort of doubt it.

   I'd like to think that if a female character in any universe, in any piece of fiction, was told that she was incapable of making a medical decision, post-rape, because her pretty little head was messed up by pregnancy hormones, the comments and reviews would be a seething, writhing mass. I'd like to believe that readers simply wouldn't accept it. Why there would be no outrage on behalf of non-female characters in the same situation is also beyond me, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that readers and writers of slash fiction are overwhelmingly female, and through a combination of telling ourselves that it's not _us_ and that none of this could happen to men in real life, somehow attitudes like these are less dangerous. But the truth is, what we write is reflection of the way we think, and what we consume as readers impacts our thinking, no matter how fictional or silly it is. Yes, fan fiction is often the product of escapist fantasies we would never enact or approve of in real life, but it doesn't mean that we are untouched by what we read or what we write.

   In particular, I was shocked to see a work like this in the Doctor Who fandom, which for all its flaws, has proved remarkably thoughtful about difference, responsibility and choice, and is canonically LGBTQ-friendly. That the character Jack Harkness himself would speak these words and evince this attitude is especially out of character, given that he is a pan-sexual 51st century dude, for whom there is canonical evidence suggesting that he was once pregnant himself (CANON! Actual canonical evidence! This practically never happens!). He also was one of those being tortured aboard the Master's space ship, so I kind of feel like of all the characters in this 'verse, Jack might be the most sympathetic and understanding of the Doctor's desire _not_ to have the Master's baby.

   This story was extreme of course, but hardly the first to make me angry or uncomfortable about the way we think about our bodies and our choices. It was just the one that made me angry enough to speak up. I'm not saying that we shouldn't write MPREG, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't read it. I'm not saying that all fic should deal with heavy, emotional topics in strictly realistic ways. I'm not even saying that you should agree with my views on abortion or access to contraception. And, for goodness' sake, we are talking about _fan fiction_ here, by turns cracky and bizarre, ridiculously dirty, angsty or fluffy, and sometimes even good old, in-character, canon-abiding Gen-fic. But regardless of your tastes and kinks, I do think we should be more thoughtful about how and what we write, about what we choose to read, what flaws we choose to gloss over. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time as lurker in fandoms as diverse as Sherlock, Game of Thrones, The Avengers, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Vampire Diaries (I know, it's my secret shame), Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and probably a dozen others, and I've run across MPREG in almost all of them. Though not a particular interest or kink of mine, I've been open to reading it, but I'm beginning sense an inescapable pattern of anti-feminist, anti-choice themes and rhetoric that I can no longer ignore. Am I the only one?


End file.
